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Today I felt the need for a different post and while browsing through the multitude of blogs available out there, I picked up an idea from one of them. I know it’s well past Tuesday, but it’s only today that I saw this week’s meme and loved it so I decided to participate. You can call it ‘My Top Ten Saturday’ if you like, for the sake of accuracy.
Most of the books I chose today I read many years ago, when reading was enough to satiate my need for words. To do them justice and write proper reviews I would have to read them again which I’m sure I will – maybe not all but some, definitely. If you read any from the list I would love to know your thoughts.
1. Needful Things – Stephen King
King is my favorite author and while I enjoy reading his books, when it comes to writing reviews for them I have trouble putting the right words together. I read this one years ago (followed by many more of his books) and to this day it remains my favorite Stephen King novel.
2. Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
One of the most beautiful stories I’ve read. So far I read it twice and I’ll probably read it again someday.
3. The Dark Tower – Stephen King
The amazing adventure of the Gunslinger in his quest of searching for the Dark Tower, this is a 7 book series packed with action and unforgettable characters, not all of them human. Some series are just too amazing to be contained in a few review words. This is one of them.
4. Winnetou – Karl May
Discovered in the dusty bookcase of a relative, Winnetou was the book of my adolescence and my first encounter with the American Indians of the Wild West. I will definitely read this one again and maybe then I’ll try to review it.
5. Harry Potter – J. K. Rowling
Some say this is a book for children but they’re usually the ones who haven’t read it. There’s enough in it for adults and children alike. We all need a bit of magic from time to time.
6. The Kent Family Chronicles – John Jakes
It must have been about 10 years since I read this three-book series. A historical fiction following the adventures of a family through the turbulence of time. A very entertaining read.
7. The Pillars of The Earth – Ken Follett
I’ve read a few of Ken Follett’s books and enjoyed them all but this one is special. Sometimes when I try to remember a book I’ve read a long time ago I can only summon a feeling, and I remember how this book felt at that time: amazing.
8. Gone with The Wind – Margarett Mitchell
This book needs no introduction – a timeless classic, the story of ambitious Scarlett O’Hara has captured my heart. The movie is pretty good, too!
I read it many years ago when writing reviews was not even a thought in my mind yet.
9. The Sorrows of Young Werther – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
A book I read a couple of years ago because one of the professors at university kept bringing it up in his lectures and it got stuck in my head. I loved it, even though it’s unbearably sad.
10. Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
I picked up this book after previously having read The Grapes of Wrath. I just wanted more of Steinbeck and while I have enjoyed both, the depressing stories were not easy to read. Nevertheless, I’d like to read East of Eden someday as well.
Wonderful top-10 list, Delia! I have read four books / series from your list – ‘Great Expectations’, ‘Harry Potter’, ‘Gone with the Wind’ and ‘The Sorrows of Young Werther’. ‘Gone with the Wind’ is one of my alltime favourite books. I read ‘The Sorrows of Young Werther’ a couple of years back and loved Goethe’s poetic prose, though the story made me sad. Wonderful to know that you are a Stephen King fan 🙂 I have read a few Stephen King books, but I haven’t read ‘Needful Things’. I will add it to my ‘TBR’ list. I also want to read Ken Follett’s ‘The Pillars of the Earth’. I have read some of his thrillers (‘Eye of the Needle’, ‘Night over Water’, ‘The Third Twin’) and loved them. But this book, I think is very different from what he writes normally. Its size also daunts me. When I am brave enough, I will pick it up one of these days 🙂
I wonder if all of Goethe’s work is as sad as “The Sorrows of Young Werther” – such a hopeless situation, it was a bit depressing to read what Werther went through (and I kept thinking, poor guy) but then the heart cannot be ruled, it has its own ways…
I’m not very fond of big books and I’ve been of two minds about picking up Follett’s latest novel, Fall of Giants, since it’s also the first of a trilogy. “A Place Called Freedom” is another one of his books I enjoyed very much, although I can’t remember any details about it at the moment.
It’s great to see someone who has read some of the books I’ve read and enjoyed them. 🙂